From 28 January 2014 any teacher in receipt of a salary from State funds must be registered with the Teaching Council of Ireland, under section 30 of the Teaching Council Act 2001. As a former teacher of many years, I wholeheartedly welcome this registration requirement. One of the most important functions of the Teaching Council of Ireland is the protection of standards of entry to the teaching profession, and establishing this register is one of the most significant milestones in the development of teaching as a profession. When one goes to a hospital or a surgery to get treatment for an illness, one expects the nurse, doctor or consultant will be registered, unless one is attending a training hospital, and to have a certain level competence. The same will apply to the teachers to whom parents entrust their child, as we all do, for a significant portion of the day. There are very limited and strict circumstances under which a school can employ an unregistered teacher, such as to prevent the school having to close if a registered substitute cannot be found. That is very significant because it has been a bone of contention and an area in which we need much stricter regulations. This will be a significant area in which the Teaching Council of Ireland will be of benefit and, as has been said, has closed that door quite considerably. The experience of newly qualified teachers in the past, myself included as I left college at the age of 19 years, was a baptism of fire. The teacher having completed the H Dip or primary school teaching degree walked into the classroom and on his or her first day was more or less left to one's own devices